Highway 1

An hour south of San Francisco, the relaxed town of Pescadero is an agrarian paradise with a scenic coastline that just won’t quit. Far from the sting of the city's farm-to-fork bromides, you'll delight on actual farms and fork your way through foods harvested from the local land. Plus, there's so much pie! Go now when rain brings vibrant green fields, crisp sea air, and cozy interiors.

Curvy Highway 1, breathtaking vistas of the ocean, lush meadows, oyster farms, small towns, local delicacies, and pristine nature is what you can expect on your drive up to Bodega Bay. Only about two hours away from San Francisco this day trip will give you the satisfaction of a faraway weekend escape.

For this week's Escape from SF, we toured American Abalone Companyin Davenport with owner-farmer Tom Ebert. Ebert walked us through the process of farming abalone all the way from the seedlings to harvest to edible delicacies.

With storybook architecture, perennial morning mist, and more fireplaces per capita than anywhere on the planet (or so it would seem), the Monterey Peninsula is one of the Bay Area’s most charming escapes.

For local, design-savvy getaways, San Franciscans usually look north to Napa and Sonoma. But 90 minutes south of the city, Santa Cruz has been quietly redefining a style once dictated by a scruffy mix of surfers, students and free-spirits. Today, the laid-back beach town exudes a creative new energy as exemplified by the following hip spots.

Like California’s majestic Highway One, the Airstream is an icon of the great American road trip. A gleaming throwback to the Golden Age of Travel, the aluminum-clad trailer debuted in 1936 and has inspired roadside envy ever since.

This week we escaped north to the rustic seaside Howard Creek Ranch Inn and B&B for some glamping, piled-high country breakfast, and super strong cowboy coffee. Perched up on the hillside in Westport, we stayed in the dog-friendly Seaview cabin complete with a outdoor kitchen, charcoal grill, enclosed outdoor shower, and massive quilts.